What Belarus Free Theater Is Up Against

Company co-founders Natalia Kaliada, Nicolai Khalezin and Vladimir Shcherban may be political refugees in London, but they’re still working via the Web with their colleagues back in Minsk – who have to give performances deep in the forest, and who had to give up their tumble-down garage headquarters after authorities threatened to bulldoze it. (Naturally they’ve all been jailed and beaten up.)

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On Facebook and Twitter I’ve been talking about bad graphic design in classical music. Why does bad design matter? Because we need a new audience. Our new audience comes — will come — from the ... read more

In the online edition of today’s Wall Street Journal, I review a new off-Broadway musical, the stage version of The Band’s Visit. Here’s an excerpt. * * * As delightful as well-done big-budget musicals can ... read more

Edward R. Murrow interviews Marlon Brando on Person to Person. This episode was originally telecast by CBS on April 1, 1955: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in ... read more

Outside Rifftides world headquarters, we’re having the first snowfall of the season. The prediction is for three inches here tonight and an accumulation of as much as a foot in the nearby ski areas of ... read more

The Alvin Ailey America Dance Theater at City Center, November 30-December 31. Rachel McLaren and Jamar Roberts of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company in Johan Inger’s Walking Mad. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu Not long after ... read more

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more ... read more

One thing I know about Brett Gorvy, Christie’s departing chairman of Post-War and Contemporary art, is that he’s very smart—probably the savviest auction-house specialist I’ve ever encountered. So it’s almost impossible not to interpret his ... read more

For the many of us reeling from the recent election, middle class communities are much on our minds. I’ve written about it twice already: Blindsided and Should We Bother? I thought it might be good ... read more

When did singers and songwriters first start getting lumped under the moniker “artists?” I think it happened during my lifetime, but I’m not sure, because I’ve spent a lot of my life in a cave. ... read more

As a result of the recent redesign of The Wall Street Journal, my drama reviews will now appear throughout the week rather than on Fridays only. In today’s paper I cover the Broadway transfer of ... read more

From 2003: I’m glad to be a self-made man, and I also find it surprisingly useful to have been born into a small-town family. For one thing, the experience of growing up in southeast Missouri ... read more

“Beauty frightens and offends the nihilist. It’s a reproach to his sense of unbounded self-importance. Beauty cannot be ignored, so it must be vandalized.” Patrick Kurp, “‘Our Lives Are Judged’” (Anecdotal Evidence, October 10, 2016) ... read more

Wolfgang Muthspiel, Rising Grace (ECM) The Austrian Guitarist Muthspiel is the leader, but he and his sidemen are so wrapped together in the music on <em>Rising Grace</em> that they might have been billed as a ... read more

This is the fourth anniversary of Dave Brubeck’s death at age 91. Under the heading, “Always remembered, never forgotten,” John Bolger sent a message that included this photograph of Brubeck as listeners remember him from ... read more

Prospero with sturdy staff and Ariel with extreme D.A.. Photo credit: Topher McGillis (RSC) In 1993 I was lucky enough to see Simon Russell Beale, then a sprightly 32-year-old, play Ariel in Sam Mendes’ ... read more

Sid Caesar is interviewed by Edward R. Murrow on Person to Person. This episode was originally telecast by CBS on October 1, 1954: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that ... read more

THE posthumous rise of the science-fiction writer Octavia Butler, who died in 2006 and spent most of her life in and around Pasadena, CA, has been fascinating to watch. I’ve been interested in Butler ... read more